As if it was not enough what loyalists of former President John Dramani Mahama did to the founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), former President Jerry John Rawlings, when the party was in power, they are on it again as their plot to expel him (Rawlings) from the party has been uncovered.
This time around, the poodles of former President Dramani Mahama, Today can report, have vowed at all cost to ensure that the former Ghanaian leader does not have anything to do with the future of the party he himself formed.
Even before the report of the Kwesi Botchwey-led 13-member committee is released, which has recommended that former President Rawlings should be brought back to take his rightful place in the party, Today understands that supporters of former President Dramani Mahama are leaving nothing to chance in their quest to have him still control affairs of the NDC.
But surprisingly, our sources say all these plots are being hatched without the knowledge of former President Dramani Mahama.
And why they are bent on doing that, our sources within the Mahama faithful have disclosed that the former president’s protagonists are afraid that if the leadership of the NDC returns to the Rawlings, where the former military leader will have his adherents running affairs of the party, they will become insignificant, thereby having their political careers been cut short.
That, our sources said, “is because the Rawlings’ factor in the NDC is huge and cannot be underestimated. Now that we are in opposition if we are not careful and we lose control of the party to him, then we are doomed.”
The loyalists of former President Dramani Mahama who have been meeting once in every week since the NDC lost power at different locations in the Northern, Ashanti , Brong-Ahafo and Greater Accra Regions, Today gathered, were working on campaign messages for him ahead of the party’s presidential primary somewhere next year.
Their meetings, Today further gathered, were also to develop strategies on how to counter any individual, particularly any NDC presidential hopeful or group of persons who may attempt to scuttle the second term bid of former President Mahama
But the source said, former President Dramani Mahama’s apologists whose 2020 slogan is: “JM: A Sure Bet For 2020” see the party’s founder as a hindrance to achieving that target, hence their resolve to destroy him.
According to our sources, they however, admit that the insult approach they adopted to deal with Mr. Rwalings in the past was not the best.
“This time our approach is different. We will not insult him. Instead we will frustrate him by constantly reminding him of some of the bad things he had said in the past about the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its leader, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,” a member of Mahama loyalists reportedly said this at one of their meetings in Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region a fortnight ago.
For instance, the source alleged that the Mahama ‘boys’ were behind the recent death rumour of the NDC’s founder on social media as part of their strategies to frustrate him.
Aside from this, the source hinted that in the coming weeks, some NDC tabloids which are pro-Mahama will publish stories about the Rawlingses, all to make them enemies of the NDC.
“We are doing all these because we know for a fact that our founder (referring to former President Rawlings) wants to have the party back so that he can direct affairs, and that will not help some of us who are tagged as his enemies,” a source within Mahama’s camp told Today in an interview on condition of anonymity over the weekend.
And as a result of this, the source said, supporters of former President Mahama do not want to have anything to do with the Rawlingses.
The source expressed fear that if former President Rawlings succeeds in taking over the NDC while in opposition, he would ensure that only his devotees run the show of the party in 2020
The sources indicated that the Mahama loyalists blamed Mr. Rawlings for the woes of the NDC, particularly the humiliating defeat the party suffered in last year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
When asked what role Mr. Rawlings played in the party’s defeat, our sources said the Mahama supporters said, his endorsement of “our opponent’s incorruptibility mantra during the electioneering campaign and also how he descended on former Minister of Transport, Dzifa Attivor, over her ethnocentric comment.”
“Would you say my brother (referring to this reporter) that our founder was on our side during the election?” our source asked?